Although politicians never tire of warning of the horrors of spending our retirement in poverty, it can hardly be a surprise that nearly half a million workers decided a sensible economy in 2009/10 was to pay nothing into their private pension fund.

New figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) show that contributions to personal and stakeholder pensions - as opposed to the State one gained automatically - fell by more than £1 billion in the last financial year.

Some 430,000 UK residents who had contributed in previous years put in nothing at all this time. Total contributions to private pensions fell from £19.2bn to £18.2bn.

Cynics might conclude that the more 'pension revolutions' are promised by politicians, the faster we lose faith in the whole idea.

Experts are worried, too. In his newsletter for clients this month, Peter Hargreaves, of financial advisor Hargreaves Lansdown, warns clients of 'the ticking time bomb' of pensions.

"The infamous baby boomers", he writes, "are starting to retire: 1947 is the biggest birth year on record, so 800,000 people turn 65 in 2012, 150,000 more than 2011. More importantly, life expectancy has risen dramatically over the past 40 years. By 2050, the ratio of workers to pensioners will be 2:1. "The figures are staggering. The current cost of the basic state pension alone is £54.9bn. With more people living longer, this will soar and it is my belief that if these pension commitments are to be met, taxes will have to rise drastically."

Millions save nothing at all for old age, which is why the coalition Government, in one of its least controversial pronouncements so far, confirmed a new national pension saving scheme is going ahead.

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) could get up to eight million people saving in a pension for the first time by 2016.

Employers will be legally bound to enrol workers in NEST once they earn around £7,500 per year. While workers put a minimum four per cent of pay into their fund, tax relief will add one per cent and employers a minimum three per cent, with an annual cap of contributions of £3,600.

But workers will retain the right to opt out of NEST, which hardly looks like a path to riches at whatever retirement age applies in 2030 or 2040.